When wife Felicity is away for the weekend he survives on a diet of poached eggs and Paddle Pops, rather than channelling George Calombaris or Heston Blumenthal and cooking up a storm in his Melbourne kitchen.

But he is passionate about the food and agriculture industry. “After the air we breathe and the water we drink, food is an absolute staple," Kennett says.

So when the new boss of
Coles
,
John Durkan
, approached Kennett a few weeks ago and asked him to oversee a supplier charter and arbitrate disputes with growers and food and grocery manufacturers Kennett overcame his reservations and accepted the job.

On Coles’s part, it was a controversial and potentially dangerous decision, given the fact it was Kennett who dobbed Coles into the competition watchdog over its claims that pre-baked and frozen bread was “freshly baked in store".

Incensed that his “freshly baked" Cuisine Royale bread and muffins had actually been made in Ireland months earlier, Kennett mailed the goods to ACCC chairman
Rod Sims
.

While Kennett was angry at Coles, he was also struck by the fact that a bakery in Ireland was capable of supplying Australian supermarket retailers thousands of kilometres away with par-baked frozen bread at prices cheaper than they could source locally.

His complaint triggered a lengthy ACCC inquiry and came to a head in June, when the Federal Court found Coles guilty of misleading shoppers and breaching consumer laws.

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When Durkan – who is keen to rebuild the retailer’s relationships with suppliers after a damaging price war and allegations of unconscionable conduct – approached Kennett last month his initial response was, “Why me?".

“They felt I was appropriate because of the dispute I had with Coles – people knew I would be independent," Kennett explained. “I said would it not be better to get a female practitioner in the role that might be better than me – I don’t need it, I have a full schedule."

Durkan has denied Kennett’s appointment is just a public relations exercise. “We wanted someone people in Australia knew and trusted would be completely impartial and would hold Coles to account."

‘Vocal but balanced’

“He’s very vocal but also balanced, when something is wrong he says so and when something changes he says that too," Durkan said.

When Kennett finally agreed to accept the three-year role – on the condition that any decisions he made as independent arbiter would be binding – his reasons were partly selfish.

The former Victorian premier took on the role in the hope it would boost the profile of his long-running campaign for the development of a 100-year national food, water and agriculture policy.

“For me, growing food and processing food is one of the great white hopes of the future," Kennett said. “Even though we’re starting 100 years too late it doesn’t mean we can’t develop a new and exciting industry in the future."

“I’ve argued for years that we have wasted so many decades of opportunities because we’ve been producing and growing food and manufacturing food for 22 million people when in fact the growth opportunities for Australia are in agriculture and the transformation of products into food for 500 million or one billion people," he said.

“We should be looking at the part of the world we’re in – four billion people – and growing for a much a larger population. That would lead to economies of scale."

“We should be investing in the science of food and developing a better understanding of the palates of communities to our north and watching their movement from rural to metro cities and providing food for their transition."

“So in a way I hope it gives weight to my advocacy for government to introduce a national agriculture policy."

Developing passion

Kennett hasn’t always been passionate about food and agriculture. Growing up in Melbourne in the ‘50s and ‘60s, the former Scotch College student had little exposure to the farming and manufacturing industries that were once the backbone of the Victorian economy.

His light-bulb moment came at the age of 28, after a serious car accident almost took his life.

After recovering from his injuries, the newly elected member for Burwood was visiting forestry operations in Gippsland when he was struck by the size and beauty of a 400-year-old tree.

“I realised just how short my life was going to be," Kennett recalled. “What you and I achieve today is of very little value unless it contributes to time well beyond your own life," he said.

“What one should be thinking about is what you can do to leave a lasting impression."

That epiphany was to guide Kennett’s 24-year political career and his life after politics. It explains his aggressive privatisation policies and high profile capital works programs, his calls for tax reform and his campaign against
Pauline Hanson
’s One Nation party.

It also explains Kennett’s long-term commitment to beyondblue, the national depression initiative launched in 2000, with Kennett as founding chairman. Kennett says his work with beyondblue has been more important than anything he achieved in politics.

Kennett has also not given up on his campaign for a national water policy.

His efforts alongside the late Visy Group chief
Richard Pratt
to divert river water into a massive inland irrigation scheme received short shrift, but Kennett remains convinced Australia can and should do more to recycle and better use its most precious resource.

“It makes so much sense," said Kennett. “But it fell on deaf ears and here we are in 2014 and we still have no national water policy."

He sees his role overseeing the Coles supplier charter and resolving disputes as an opportunity to put a stake in the ground and do his bit to ensure Australia has a future in food.

“If we lose these suppliers the opportunity of developing the dream I have of Australia, going into 2100, will be lost entirely."